


Dwight Hendrickson: timeline and trauma laundry list

by Hagar



Series: Hagar's Haven Meta [2]
Category: Haven - Fandom
Genre: Canonical Character Death, Episode: s02e10 Who What Where Wendigo, Episode: s02e11 Business As Usual, Episode: s03e10 Burned, Episode: s03e12 Reunion, Episode: s04e09 William, Episode: s04e13 The Lighthouse, Episode: s05e06 The Old Switcheroo Part 2, Escape to Haven (Youtube Vidlets), Gen, Meta, PTSD, Trauma, US Army Rangers, Veterans
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-12-01
Updated: 2014-12-01
Packaged: 2018-02-27 18:17:33
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,020
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2702561
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Hagar/pseuds/Hagar
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Service history, military history and a basic trauma laundry list.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Dwight Hendrickson: timeline and trauma laundry list

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Rabbitt](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Rabbitt/gifts).



> Compiled from a series of conversations on tumblr.

###### 1\. Service history

Real-world data:

  * At least 2yr of exemplary service (no disciplinary issues), which make for a rank of PFC or higher
  * Ranger School, aka 61 Days of Hell ([Wikipedia](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ranger_School))
  * Passing Ranger School = having a Ranger Tab. Having a ranger Tab =/= being accepted to the 75th Regiment. Being accepted to the 75th Regiment = Being A Ranger. Bottom line: Ranger School does _not_ make one _a_ Ranger just yet.
  * To be accepted to the 75th, one needs also pass [RASP](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ranger_Assessment_and_Selection_Program).
  * RASP comes in two levels of difficulty, depending on the candidate’s skill level - which very much means age. Typically, candidates for SOF units need to be at least 30yr of age; the RASP intended for younger officers and NCOs is the more challenging ones, as these younger persons also need to be more stringently assessed for psych stability
  * New Ranger contract: 5yr active active duty, 3yr active reserve (regular periodic drills, basically), and 2-5yr of some capacity of reserve.
  * At the end of the first 5yr, even odds on whether a person signs up for longer or gets out. Lifers aren’t rare, but neither are people who only do the initial signup then shift to a reserve capacity



Canon gives us only three hard facts about Dwight’s service:

  1. He had been a soldier his entire adult life. This means he likely enlisted straight out of high school and was an NCO rather than an officer.
  2. He had been deployed to Afghanistan as part of the Ranger Regiment in 2001. This correlates with Operation Enduring Freedom.
  3. His Trouble manifested in 2001 in Afghanistan, and brought his military career to an end.



There’s a lot of wriggle room in the above. Personally, I like to think that Dwight made the cut younger than 30, and that he still had most of the initial Ranger contract left when his Trouble erupted.

Another question is what do his discharge papers say. One option is that his physical injuries were severe enough to justify his release from active service; this would preserve his connection to the service, e.g. on the matter of benefits. Given Dwight’s level of physical function in canon, I don’t find that likely. (Even if his injuries were so severe it was estimated he’d never be able to serve in a combat position again, a more likely scenario for someone serving in the sort of unit he had is that he would’ve been transferred to a non-combat position that still makes use of his skillset.) The second option is what amounts to a psych discharge.

The number of years between Dwight’s entry into the Rangers and 2002 matters, because entering the Rangers would’ve reset his contract to 8 more years. You _bet_ he’s carrying guilt for every day he was supposed to serve and didn’t; the earlier he got into the Rangers, the less this burden becomes.

In the meantime, going by the usual lines, puts his birth year in 1970/1971 and enlistment in ‘88/’89. Allowing for the usual training period for infantry, he would’ve become operational within a year of enlistment. This opens up a lot of bloody conflicts the US had combat personnel in during the first half of the 1990s, most notably Iraq (Desert Storm, 1991), Somalia (1992-1995) Yugoslavia (1992-1996). Assume Dwight got into the Rangers younger than usual and push his birth year to 1975 (the presumed birth year for Nathan and Duke), and he would’ve _maybe_ (but probably not) made Yugoslavia; there was a lot less US military involvement in the second half of the 1990s, meaning less chances for Dwight’s Trouble to blow open.

One of the interesting options with going for a birth year of 1970 plus combat deployment is that it allows for him to potentially get early into the 75th on combat merit - although, granted, that would require crafting an applicable scenario that allowed him to achieve that without blowing his Trouble open. I don’t find this option particularly likely, bringing us back to the options of (a) birth year no later than 1971 and usual entry-age, (b) later birth year and precocious entry to the Rangers.

###### 2\. Family history

 **Lizzie and her mother.** Episode 2.10 Who What Where Wendigo takes place in August 2010. In that episode, Dwight says that Lizzie would’ve turned 9 that day. This puts Lizzie’s birth date in August 2001, a mere 2 months before Dwight’s deployment as part of OEF. It stands to reason that Dwight and Lizzie’s mother were married, for such practical reasons as social benefits. Episode 5.12 Chemistry confirmed what’s been my headcanon of some time: that Dwight separated from Lizzie’s mother after his Trouble manifested and ended his military career, and _because_ of his Trouble. His custody of Lizzie is likely also related to the family Trouble. Maybe it was an ugly custody fight, maybe Lizzie’s mother wanted nothing to do with a Troubled child and all that implies - we don’t know; Dwight certainly indicates that the divorce had been traumatic for him. (It doesn’t necessarily mean that the divorce wasn’t amicable.)

 **When did Lizzie die?** I’m inclined to think that Lizzie had been killed after her eighth birthday. This would also make sense with the timeline of the Troubles; the earliest Trouble at the time of composing this meta had manifested some 2 years before the night of the Hunter, and wasn’t known to be a Trouble until episode 5.08 Exposure. Additionally, I’m inclined to think that the unnamed Guardsmen wouldn’t have come to Dwight’s home waving guns around if they had good reason to believe the Troubles were already active. I’m inclined to date Lizzie’s death to September-October 2009.

 **Is Dwight originally from Haven?** Based on the _Escape to Haven_ vidlets, I’d argue that he was not. In those vidlets, Grady is shown visiting Dwight in the hospital after his 2001 injury and giving him information both about the Troubles and the town of Haven; an “Escape to Haven” tourist-y postcard is explicitly shown. This may or may not be countered by Gloria knowing his sister (episode 5.06 The Old Switcheroo Part 2): Dwight had last spoken to his sister 3 years before episode 5.06, so in or around summer 2008. Presumably he and his sister have been in contact to some degree between 2002 and 2008, so whatever connection the sister and Gloria have may have occurred then.

 **Dwight and the Guard.** I’m going to assume that Dwight is not originally from Haven. Between his injury, the divorce and Army-admin hell, it would’ve been some time before he came to Haven; 2003 or 2004 are possible. We know that he didn’t become active in the Guard immediately after settling in Haven (the _Escape to Haven_ vidlets again). Lastly, we know that his fallout with the Guard happened shortly before Lizzie was killed, so late summer or early autumn 2009. There’s two versions given on what triggered Dwight breaking up with the Guard: in episode 3.12 Reunion Audrey assumes that it was the forceful relocation of a Troubled person (a suggestion likely inspired by the story of Ginger in episode 3.10 Burned) and Dwight doesn’t correct her, but in the _Escape to Haven_ vidlets Dwight says that he had been asked to kill a Troubled person. This latter version also explains why it’s taken some 5-6 for the Guard to feel comfortable enough to try and give Dwight that kind of an order.

###### 3\. Trauma laundry list

That Dwight’s Trouble had manifested (and under the conditions it did) is a strong indication that he has (or had, but I’ll be making the argument he still does) PTSD. This is not a trivial statement. SOF personnel are uniquely resilient to trauma. The screening criteria include psychological stability, and then they’re trained and heavily conditioned - not to ignore distress, but to expect it and know how to cope with it. (The purpose of exposure to extreme stresses in training is to familiarize the person with their responses to that, and allow them to learn how to manage that.) PTSD of course still happens (resilience is not immunity and human beings are still human beings), but the way it behaves is not quite the same as in the general population. It seems very likely that no one in Haven realizes that Dwight has PTSD.

So the initial incident that blew open his Trouble, that’s one. Second is that it had forced the end of his military career, _particularly_ as he likely still had years on his contract. Every day of service he was to have served and didn’t is a debt, and this is a debt he can never pay up. I think it’s likely this guilt played a part in his involvement in the Guard, and his level of commitment and investment. This presumed level of investment make the terms under which he’d left the Guard and the betrayal of trust involved (in having been asked to commit murder) that much worse.

Supporting that Dwight had had active PTSD while he was a member of the Guard, in the _Escape to Haven_ vidlets he says that he wore a bulletproof vest in Haven before Lizzie’s death - before the Troubles returned in force, and so presumably while his own Trouble was _not_ active. (At least not while he was in Haven.) This is an excessive level of worry, an excessive and exaggerated response to a perceived threat. In other words, this is paranoia - which is a potential symptom of PTSD. It’s supported by a phrase Dwight uses in those vidlets: “I made my home in a war zone.” Here, it’s important that Dwight was specifically a Ranger, and “Ranger leads the way”. More than any other force, the purpose of Rangers is to be sent in very small teams or on their own deep into enemy or unknown territory, with no expected backup or rescue. When Dwight refers to Haven as a “war zone”, he doesn’t just mean the chances of being killed on one’s way to buy groceries: he means the sense of being utterly isolated, with no expectation or chance of backup, and having to make do with a local population that will never quite be trustworthy.

So far, we’re standing at: (1) original precipitating incident of his Trouble, (2) premature termination of his military service and associated guilt, (3) divorce and custody, (4) terms of his leaving the Guard, (5) terms of Lizzie’s death and Lizzie’s death. All of these contribute to (6) an experience of pervasive isolation and a slow destruction of any support system he’d ever had from 2001 to 2009. This last item probably did not help at all with his paranoia; canonically, he’s at least as paranoid as Duke and willing to drop alliances quickly and sharply.

 **Duke** \- or more to the point, the way Dwight relates to Duke - provides insight on Dwight. Dwight has a record of relating to Duke better than anyone else in Haven - identifying with him, even. In episode 2.10 Business As Usual Dwight drew a fairly strong comparison between their family histories (specifically, their fathers) based on rather flimsy similarities; the core issue feeding his paranoia regarding Duke (that Duke would become a killer) reflects the order over which Dwight broke up with the Guard; and in episode 4.13 The Lighthouse Dwight described Duke (positively) in military terminology - making Duke one of _two_ people for which Dwight did this, the other one being _Charlotte_ ; Dwight’s treatment of Duke in the first half of S5 also indicates that Dwight expects Duke to behave similarly to himself (the rationality of that expectation is a different conversation). Whatever the reasons may be, no matter how rational or conscious it is or isn’t, Dwight seems to identify with Duke. Consider Dwight’s drive to protect being what blew up his Trouble and likely caused the initial PTSD and his guilt over his unfulfilled obligations, and how these may interact and influence his paranoia: it speaks volumes that the person who bears the brunt of Dwight’s paranoia is the one who reminds him most of himself.

 


End file.
